Writing Wild and Braiding Sweetgrass – Book Reviews

  • Post published:07/03/2020
  • Post comments:4 Comments

WRITING WILD by Kathryn Aalto Writing Wild is the thrilling and inviting title of Kathryn Aalto’s book about 25 Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World (Timber Press $24.95). She begins with Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of poet William Wordsworth, who succinctly described herself as a “mountaineer, diarist, poet.” This first section sets up the design of the book. First there is a bit of unexpected (in many cases) biography focusing in some…

Olallie Daylily Farm in South Newfane, Vermont.

  • Post published:07/01/2020
  • Post comments:2 Comments

Just in this past week my daylilies have begun to bloom. Years and years ago I never paid attention to daylilies, which I never seemed to even notice beyond roadside orange daylilies. But daylilies have an amazing history and have gotten more various and beautiful over the  last hundred years. Daylilies originated in Asia over 400 years ago; the orange daylilies we all recognize. Then they started travelling through Europe beginning in  the 1800s. They even made their…

My Journey to the Sustainable Rose Garden

  • Post published:06/26/2020
  • Post comments:1 Comment

The only roses I remember as a child, was the prickery rose bush near my grandparent’s house in Vermont. It did not hold much interest for me except that I thought it might be a place visited by fairies. Occasionally I would leave a tiny gift, but I never did see any fairies. Even so, I did not lose my belief that there are magical creatures in the world. When I was a young teenager in Connecticut I…

Three Composting Techniques for Soil Improvement

  • Post published:06/19/2020
  • Post comments:0 Comments

At our house we make use of three different composting techniques. We have two black bins for kitchen scraps and weeds, wire bins for leaves, and a compost pile for weeds and pruning trimmings. These three ways of making compost provide different ways of improving our soil. Most of us are familiar with the black compost bins. I take a pot of vegetable scraps out every day. However it takes more than just those scraps and weeds. It…

My Roses on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – June 15, 2020

  • Post published:06/15/2020
  • Post comments:7 Comments

On this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, most of my bloomers are roses, but this sage plant is right outside the back door and I love it! I'll never use that much sage, but it is beautiful. Zaide is one of my favorite roses. I appreciate that it was more than 30 years ago that the German Kordes hybridizers were making sturdy disease resistant roses that  would not need insecticides. They were way ahead of the US in creating…

Flowers in Every Season for Pollinators and Happy Gardener

  • Post published:06/12/2020
  • Post comments:0 Comments

It is not difficult to find flowers for every season.  Many spring flowers have decided it is time to take a nap until next April. If it weren’t for the fact that summer bloomers were beginning to show their colors I’d be very depressed. Like many of us my spring garden began with bulb flowers like scillas, crocuses, daffodils and tulips of every sort. In my May garden fringed bleeding hearts and a goldheart bleeding heart showed their…

Alphabet for Pollinators – E is for Echinacea

  • Post published:06/09/2020
  • Post comments:2 Comments

Echinacea otherwise known as coneflower is a wonderful perennial. It is a sturdy plant. Echinacea purpurea is ideal for bees because they see those landing strips (petals) and right on to the nectar and pollen. There are many many new Echinacea varieties, but if you want to attract and feed the bees, simpler flowers are more beneficial. Behind the Echinacea in the photo above you can see a blossom of the Eryngium, sea holly, which looks spiky but…

Forty Years in the Garden – Chapter 3 – Book and Blogs

  • Post published:06/05/2020
  • Post comments:3 Comments

Over the years I occasionally thought about all the columns I had written since 1980. I enjoyed writing all those columns, but columns are so ephemeral. Here today, gone tomorrow. A friend suggested I write a book. After all, I had all that material. Writing a book is different from writing a column, but the idea appealed more every day. And one day I sat down and began to write. Every week I’d hand in my column, and…

Forty-years in the Garden – Chapter 2

  • Post published:05/29/2020
  • Post comments:2 Comments

Over the years I have been honored to be invited into many gardens. Sometimes gardeners are organizing a garden tour and want publicity. This is always a great opportunity for a columnist. Tour gardeners are always articulate and knowledgeable about their gardens. They are willing to share plant names, advice about care and design thoughts. It was not long before I created my own annual garden tour. Over the years it gave me substantial material. It was named…

Color, Water, Mirrors, Shade – and a Dining Table for Pleasure

  • Post published:05/27/2020
  • Post comments:2 Comments

On the 15th of May the garden is blooming with creeping blue phlox, Troillus, grape hyacinths, tiarella, barren strawberry and a single rhododendron blossom. We love flowers but other elements can make a welcoming garden. There are useful items that can also be decorative and colorful. Water has long been known to be an important element in the garden. We only have a blue birdbath, but the birds make good use of it. In my travels I have…